The Door Under The Stairs
by Author Incognito
Summary: In the aftermath of a tragedy, Amelia discovers some rather unsettling things about her husband's family. Two-shot.


"We'll be back soon." Amelia's husband, Dudley, had told her as he pulled out of the driveway with his mum beside of him, on their way to make the funeral arrangements for Amelia's father-in-law, who had died a couple of days previously after having complications from a car accident a week before his death. It was a very sad time indeed for the Dursley family. Petunia had hardly stopped crying since the news of Vernon's death, and Dudley had been very distant to others since his father's death. Amelia wished that she could comfort them about Vernon's death, and tell that all about the wonderful things that she had known that he had done, but the truth was, she couldn't. She just couldn't. Despite having known Vernon Dursley for over a year and a half, Amelia had never gotten past small talk whenever she talked to him, and as a result she had never been truly close to the man. Now, in the aftermath of his death, Amelia wasn't sure whether or not she regretted never getting close to him. Even if she was, it was all in the past now and there was nothing that she could do about it.

Amelia glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece for what seemed like the millionth time since Dudley and Petunia had left. It showed that exactly two hours and twenty minutes had passed since their departure, but Amelia felt as though he had been much more. _Why, _she wondered to herself as she tore her eyes away from the clock, _is it that whenever I want time to speed up, it seems to go even more slowly than usual? _

Amelia sat there on the couch for a few more minutes before she realized that her gaze had moved toward the open window, which she had been watching nearly as much as the clock itself, in her hopes to see her mother-in-laws familiar car coming down the road and into the driveway. Amelia turned her head away from the window and stood up from the chair, not wanting to spend any more mind-numbing time sitting around doing nothing except staring at clock and an open window for minutes at a time.

Running her hand along the walls as she walked out of the room, Amelia smiled at the many pictures that seemed to be everywhere that she looked, all showcasing a happy and loving family. Amelia stopped walking for a moment as she ran her finger along the frame of the last picture on the wall, a picture that showed her husband as a toddler being hugged and kissed by his parents. Amelia smiled at it for a brief moment before walking out of the room and into the hallway. She looked over at the door that lay beneath the stairs. Ever since she could remember, that particular door had always been locked, and whenever she mentioned it to either Petunia, Vernon, or Dudley, even in passing, it was almost guaranteed that their would be an abrupt change of subject leading away from any mention of the door at all. The closest she head ever come to unraveling the mystery of the door was shortly after her engagement to Dudley when she had asked him- making sure that Petunia and Vernon were no where near them- why it was always locked. "Because it is full of bad memories." He had said to her, and refused to say anything more about it.

Hardly aware of what she was doing, Amelia shuffled over to the door, her feet barely leaving the floor as she walked. She reached over hesitantly towards the door knob, childishly half-expecting it to burn her whenever she touched it. When it didn't, Amelia began to turn the door knob. She wasn't even sure why she was doing this. The door was always locked. Why on Earth would it be open now?

Amelia gave a noise of startled surprise as she managed to pull the door open. Heart beating loudly in her chest, Amelia looked around the space that the door had concealed for over a year from her. As she continued to look around the room, Amelia felt her eagerness turn into confusion and then into horror as she took in the cramped bed in the extremely tiny room, the nearly illegible drawing of a family of stick figures that was tacked next to the bed on the wall, a series of broken toys that lay upon the shelf above the bed.

"Amy?" Amelia nearly jumped out of her skin as she heared a voice coming from directly behind her. "What are you doing in there?" Amelia turned around to face her husband, feeling rather like a child that had been caught doing something that they aught not to be doing.

"I -I" She stammered out and, when she was unable to come up with a good response, blurted out "Where's your mum?"

Dudley jerked his head over to the front door. "Still in the car, but don't ignore the question Amy. What are you doing in there?"

Amelia gave a small laugh. "Don't ignore the question Amy!" She repeated. "You've been ignoring my questions about this door for as long as I can remember and now you have the nerve to tell me not to ignore your question!" Amelia said, her voice getting higher and higher with each word that was spoken.

"What is going on in here?" Amelia heard her mother-in-law ask as she opened the front door. Amelia looked over towards her and saw that her eyes were red and puffy, as if she had only stopped crying minutes before. Amelia saw her looking from Dudley to Amelia, now standing in the doorway of the small room.

"Nothing." Amelia said as Petunia's eyes began to narrow with an expression that Amy couldn't identify. And, before she could give another chance for her mother-in-law to speak, Amelia walked out of the doorway and began to make her way up the stairs, intending to go towards her husband's old room, where she and Dudley were now staying in while they helped Petunia with the funeral.

Once she made it to the room, Amelia collapsed onto the bed, her mind still reeling with what she had just seen. What had that room been for? Why did it looked to have been lived in, of all things? These and many more questions flooded her brain as she lay there, staring up at the ceiling.

"Amy." She heard Dudley say to her. Lifting her head up, she saw her husband standing in the doorway, seemingly reluctant to enter the room despite the fact that it was his room. "You never told me why you were in that room."

"And you never told me anything about that door, except that it was full of bad memories!" Amelia retorted, sitting up in the bed.

Dudley sighed and walked over towards her. "It was my cousin's old room."

Amelia felt her face grow pale. "Your what?" She asked with a whisper.

"My cousin. It was his old room." Dudley said as he sat down beside of her.

"I didn't know that you had a cousin." Amelia said, then continued. "That. . . that place was where he stayed in whenever he came to visit you?"

Dudley shook his head.

"But . . . you just said . . ." Amelia trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"I said that that it was his old room."

"What do you mean?"

" I mean that I wasn't the only one to grow up in this house."

Amelia looked at Dudley, her eyes wide. "Who else lived here?" She asked.

Dudley looked over at her. "I think that you already know."

"Your cousin." Amelia said, and, upon seeing the expression upon her husband's that made her absolutely sure that she was right, continued. "But why, why would that be his room? Your house has four rooms."

" I know."

"Then why-"

"Because my parents felt that he was different, so they made him live under there." Dudley said bitterly.

Amelia narrowed her eyes. "They made him!"

"Yes, ever since he came to live her after his parent's died." Dudley said, then added after seeing the look on Amelia's face. "Don't think too lowly of them. They were just doing what they thought was best." Dudley's voice trailed off at the end, and Amelia wasn't even for sure that even he believed his statement to be true.

"So, that was his room the whole time he was here." Amelia said, barely disguising the disgust evident in her voice.

"Not the whole time. He moved to my second bedroom when he was eleven. Not that he really had a choice in the matter." Dudley said under his breath.

"What?" Amelia asked.

"Nothing." Dudley said.

"So . . ."

"So, what?"

"Where is he now?"

"Where's who now?"

"Your cousin."

"Oh, um, I don't know. I haven't seen him in nearly ten years." Dudley said, now staring down at his feet.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm to scared to face him."

"Why?"

"Because I know that he hates me, I just know it."

"I'm sure that he doesn't hate you." Amelia said.

" I was absolutely horrible to him when I was younger Amy! How could he not hate me."

Amelia found, to her dismay, that she had no answer to that question.

**Author's Notes- Rather bad ending, I know, but hopefully I'll get everything cleared up by the next chapter.**


End file.
